Academics and Student Life
The Transfer Student Peer Mentor Program provides support and resources for new J.D. transfer students. Transfer Student Peer Mentors are third or fourth-year J.D. students who have transferred to Georgetown Law in a previous year and assist incoming transfer students as they make the transition to Georgetown Law. The program is intended to help incoming J.D. transfer students make the most of the many opportunities available at the Law Center, while simultaneously fostering community and camaraderie among transfer students as well as throughout the Law Center.
There is a specific orientation program for transfer students.
Admitted transfer students have access to the Admitted Student Website, where all relevant transfer information is posted.
Transfers students are eligible for Law Review and Fall Recruitment (including OCI), just as rising 2Ls who originated at Georgetown Law. Please note that certain opportunities are available only to those admitted or deposited by particular dates, so therefore we strongly encourage you to apply early.
Transfer students are able to compete for the Moot Court, ADR, and Trial Advocacy (Mock Trial) teams.
There are two courses offered exclusively for transfer students–one section of Constitutional Law I (a required first-year courses at Georgetown Law) and Criminal Procedure.
Transfer Student Peer Mentor ProgramAfter evaluation of your law school transcript and courses, up to 31 credits may be transferred. Once admitted, you will be asked to submit the syllabi for your first-year courses for review for transfer credit. Georgetown Law does not accept credit for distance-learning or state-law courses and reserves the right to determine whether to accept for transfer any courses or credits, whether courses fulfill Georgetown Law’s first-year course requirements or experiential course credit requirements, and whether any previously completed coursework is mutually exclusive with Georgetown Law courses.
Transfer students do not carry over their GPA from their prior law school.
Students who transfer to Georgetown Law after their first year of law school are eligible for consideration for Order of the Coif and for cum laude and magna cum laude graduation honors, based solely on grades earned at the Law Center. (Transfer students are not eligible for consideration for the award of summa cum laude, which requires a graduate to have completed at least 71 credits at the Law Center).
Yes, transfer students can participate in Summer and Fall recruitment programs to the extent that they’re admitted – and meet all deposit requirements – by applicable Office of Career Strategy deadlines.
Recruitment and Networking ProgramsYes. Transfer students may participate in the Write On Competition. The deadlines are different for transfer students and the number of spots reserved for transfer students varies by journal (but all journals reserve spots for transfer students). We do not provide statistics for the number of transfer students who were placed on the journals.
For more detailed information, including competition dates and a list of FAQs, please see Transfer Students: Information and FAQs on the Write On Competition page.
To participate in the competition this year, the packet must be purchased by the purchasing packet deadline.
– Students who are admitted by the purchasing packet deadline must compete in this year’s competition and will not be able to compete in next year’s competition.
– If you do not purchase the packet and are admitted after this year’s purchasing packet deadline, you will be eligible to compete in next year’s competition.
– If you have yet to be admitted, you may participate in this year’s competition. You must, however, be admitted before OJA posts results. Any transfer student who participates in this year’s competition, but is not admitted by the deadline set by OJA (see Transfer Students: Information and FAQs on the Write On Competition page), will be dropped from the competition and may not compete the following year. Interested students who have not yet been admitted should send an email to lawwriteon@georgetown.edu.
Write On CompetitionTransfer students have an opportunity to participate in the Leahy Competition during late September/early October of their 2L year. Participants who advance far enough in the competition are invited to join our Appellate Advocacy Moot Court team. For more information, please visit The Barrister’s Council Competitions page.
Barrister’s Council Competition PageTo qualify for the ADR division, students must participate in the Arbitration Competition (held in the fall) and the Intraschool Negotiation Competition (held in the spring). The Arbitration Competition is open to upper-class students. In the Negotiation Competition, students demonstrate their skillful handling of a legal negotiation in settlement discussions with their peers. Competitors who advance to the final rounds of these competitions are invited to join the Barrister’s Council and to represent Georgetown Law on one of its interscholastic ADR teams. For more information, please visit The Barrister’s Council Competitions page.
Barrister’s Council Competition PageA transfer student may enroll in a clinic after matriculating at Georgetown. Please note that students in some of our clinics practice before the courts and other tribunals of D.C. and, therefore, must meet the requirements of the D.C. student practice rule. This rule requires the completion of 41 credit hours before the beginning of the semester in which the students are enrolled in a clinic, including courses in Civil Procedure, Criminal Justice, and Evidence. Students who have not taken Georgetown’s required first year courses might not have these prerequisites, as a Criminal Law course taken at the student’s former school generally will not fulfill the Criminal Procedure prerequisite.
The two-credit Criminal Procedure course for transfer students is often only offered once a year, so students interested in enrolling in clinics requiring D.C. Bar certification should take this course (or an available section of Criminal Justice) during the year prior to the year they wish to enroll in the clinic.
Please note that Georgetown Law’s clinic application process takes place early in the Spring semester, and most clinics will not have open seats for incoming 2L transfer students. Most Georgetown Law students who participate in clinics do so in their final year, however, and transfer students will have the opportunity to apply for any seats that become available.
Typically, transfer J.D. students cannot complete joint degree programs with Georgetown University’s Main Campus. In order to graduate from Georgetown Law, you must complete 85 credits total, 54 of which must be at the Law Center. The maximum number of credits that our Registrar’s Office will transfer from any other institution is 31 credit hours. GU-Main Campus is considered another institution. Thus, the accelerated nature offered by most of our joint degree programs is unavailable for transfer students, since they are at or almost at the maximum number of credits that can be transferred in (i.e., the overlap or cross-transfer of credit requirements between the two programs is not possible due to the 31 transfer-in credit amount restriction).
Transfer students who wish to pursue two degrees must be mindful of how many semesters their non-J.D. degree studies will take them away from the Law Center. Students in the full-time program are expected to graduate at the end of three academic years and may take no longer than five consecutive calendar years from the date of matriculation in law school (for transfer students, this would be when they matriculated into their prior law school and started their 1L/1E year) to meet all J.D. degree requirements. If after five consecutive calendar years a student has not yet completed all academic requirements necessary to graduate, the student will be withdrawn from the Law Center with no possibility of readmission or graduation, unless excused by grant of a waiver from the Registrar.
Likewise, students in the part-time program are expected to graduate within four academic years of matriculation and may take no longer than six consecutive calendar years from the date of matriculation in law school to meet all J.D. degree requirements. If after six consecutive calendar years a student has not completed all degree requirements necessary to graduate, the student will be withdrawn from the Law Center with no possibility of readmission or graduation, unless excused by grant of a waiver from the Registrar.
Transfer students may pursue a joint J.D./LL.M degree.
Transfer students generally may only study abroad through the CTLS or London Summer Program. In order to graduate from Georgetown Law, you must complete 85 credits total (54 of which must be at the Law Center). The maximum number of credits that our Registrar’s Office will transfer from any other institution is 31 credit hours. Credits earned at the Center for Transnational Legal Study count as Law Center credits, so transfer students who bring in the maximum of 31 credits from their first-year school can still count these credits toward their J.D.
Evening Program students who have transferred 23 credits or fewer from their first year of law school should speak to an academic advisor if they are interested in studying abroad.
If you wish to take summer courses, you must remain enrolled at your current law school and obtain their permission to attend as a visiting student during the Summer semester, and you would enroll as a non-degree J.D. student through the Registrar’s office. You will need to submit the online application for the non-degree J.D. program when it is available to let the Registrar know which course(s) you wish to enroll in. Our Registrar’s office will update the J.D. non-degree page for the Summer in late March, and the application fee will be waived for admitted transfer students.
The Registrar’s office will count your non-degree Summer courses and credits to your Georgetown J.D. degree, and the grades will be calculated in your cumulative GPA. Admitted transfer students are not able to enroll in any Summer courses until after our current students have registered (just before classes begin in mid-May). Admitted transfer students are then able to enroll in any course a J.D. student can enroll in on a space available basis.
Online Application for the Non-Degree J.D. DegreeYes. The summer program is a great opportunity for transfer students to meet Georgetown faculty and students in advance of their matriculation at Georgetown in the fall. Also, once a transfer student enrolls at Georgetown Law in the fall, credits earned through the summer program will be applied toward the Georgetown J.D. degree and grades received will be factored into the Georgetown Law GPA. Information about the program is provided below and additional details about the application process are available on the London Summer Program website. Questions regarding the program should be directed to the Office of Transnational Programs at lawtransnational@georgetown.edu.
London Summer Program